Research Centers and Groups

Members of Archaeological Survey excavate at the Hull House site in Lancaster, NY.

The Department of Anthropology has numerous research facilities and collaborative affiliations that provide opportunities for undergraduate and graduate student involvement.

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Research Centers and Institutes

MARIAN E. WHITE ANTHROPOLOGY RESEARCH MUSEUM

The Anthropology Research Museum houses collections of North American archaeology including ceramics, lithic (stone) and bone artifacts, in addition to a modest collection of ethnographic and biological materials. Although the museum was formally opened to the public in 1979, the idea for the Museum dates back to the 1960s when the late Dr. Marian White (1921-1975), a well-known archaeologist in New York State and professor of anthropology at UB, laid the groundwork for establishing a departmental museum.

UB ANTHROPOLOGY LIBRARY

The library houses an extensive, non-circulating collection of mostly anthropological books and journals. Included are a large number of textbooks, journals, ethnographic items, and most of the Anthropology Department student theses. Articles may also be put on reserve here for use in department classes and can be accessed by anyone during library hours.

BUFFALO HUMAN EVOLUTIONARY MORPHOLOGY LAB (BHEML)

The Buffalo Human Evolutionary Morphology Lab is dedicated to research that combines the theoretical and analytical principles of evolutionary quantitative genetics with the empirical and methodological techniques of statistical shape analysis. Members of this lab are interested in how morphological variation evolves, both under neutral stochastic parameters and as a result of non-neutral selective forces.

ANTHROPOLOGY GIS LABORATORY

The University at Buffalo's Social Systems Geospatial Information Science Laboratory is a research group supervised under the direction of Professor Ezra Zubrow. Housed in the Department of Anthropology, the group specializes in GIS (Geographic Information Systems) and spatial statistics to examine prehistoric, historic and modern patterns of cultural landscape transformation.

UB ARCHAEOLOGICAL SURVEY

The UB Archaeological Survey is a not-for-profit research, contracting and applied archaeology institution within the Department of Anthropology. The survey has been engaged in cultural resource management (CRM) projects in New York State for over 30 years.

INSTITUTE FOR EUROPEAN AND MEDITERRANEAN ARCHAEOLOGY (IEMA)

The Institute for European and Mediterranean Archaeology, or IEMA, is a Signature Center of Excellence within the College of Arts and Sciences, University at Buffalo, State University of New York. It was created in 2006 by an interdisciplinary faculty drawn from departments across the university.

CENTER FOR EUROPEAN STUDIES (CEUS)

CEUS is devoted to research and intellectual exchange among faculty and students on political, cultural, and social transformations of contemporary Europe as well as Europe's multiple historical traditions and close connections to North America.

ANTHROPOLOGY OF EUROPE LAB

The mission of the lab is to establish a forum for the free exchange of ideas pertaining to the study of Europe from the perspectives of social and cultural anthropology, and for the discussion of research and results. Drs. Vasiliki Neofotistos, Jaume Franquesa and Deborah Reed-Danahay, the lab's co-directors, aim to help and support graduate students develop and think critically about their research projects, write competitive grant proposals, and produce scholarship of a high standard.

Research Groups

Zooarchaeology Research Group

The Zooarchaeology Group @ UB provides a forum for discussion about advances in zooarchaeology and participation in zooarchaeological research. The group is cooperatively led by Research Assistant Professor Caroline Funk and a group of graduate and undergraduate students. We read and discuss recent articles in the discipline and we are involved in three ongoing and developing projects:

We maintain the Zooarchaeology Lab’s dermestid colony and we are developing our department’s animal osteological reference collection for student and faculty research,

We are engaged in Project Chicken, an actualistic research project focused on avifaunal taphonomy,

We are planning a program of public outreach in local schools, where we’ll present The Zooarch Dermestids to young scientists to encourage interdisciplinary STEM interests from an early age.

Zooarchaeology @ UB has cooperative agreements with the Buffalo Zoo, Buffalo Olmstead Parks Conservancy, UB’s Customer Service and Maintenance, and the farming and hunting community south of Buffalo. Our Salvage, Possession and Collection permits with the United States Fish and Wildlife Service Migratory Birds Division and the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation are allowing us to develop a synoptic Western New York faunal osteological collection. Our website reports on our activities and our growing specimen collection.